Do you ever just find yourself head over heals in love?

With scrapbooking stuff? What did you think I was going to say? Haha...Anyway I am head over heels in love with the Jingle kits as well as the coordinating Christmas stamps!  I have not bought Christmas stamps in so long and then this year I found that I needed several.

Ms. Holiday Cheer, Holliday Trinkets, Snow Flurries...I just cannot get enough. Add those twinkling brads and the demensionals and the ribbon...oh my goodness!!!

So I have not just been loving the stamps and the papers I have been using it too!

I have a Christmas card class that is running on Saturday, November 14 and December 4 we are making 4 each of 5 designs I am giving you a little sneeay peeky of 3 of them.

Here is Ms. Holiday Cheer going out on the town shopping for gifts. Isn't she so stinking cute? I focused on paper piecing here something I never do. You could also color her in with markers. 

Next I will show you a chilly little card using Snow Flurries. Now I secretly, ok it is no secret, I love the snow. If it has to be cold I also want it to be pretty. I mean seriously why should I just be freezing if I don't have diamonds dancing in the snow? On a side note Juniper was not my favorite color until I saw it in this paper pack. Can I just tell you how much I love it! I don't know how I lived without it before. It is so versatile too.

In this card I took the Top Notch die...how cute is that? Anyway I just stamped a few flurries here and a few flurries there added a little bling and bam super cute card in a monochromatic theme that will take your breath away just like a crisp cold morning.

It is so fun to share some cards with you as I feel that I have not done so in a long time. Another card that I want to show you is using Holiday Trinkets. I focused on the tree's for this card, we also get to use the ornaments later one. I love this card is just pure colorful fun! It mixes and matches patterns and it is so bright and colorful.

I hope you enjoyed the sneak peek. Please let me know if you would like to join us in class. I still have a few more seats open or as always you can do the class by mail. It is just a little extra for shipping.

I know this is a crazy love but sometimes new papers and stamps just make me a little gaga. Maybe I need to get out more...maybe I am spending too much time with the kids...nahhh...

Have a great day I am off to create...

Just one year...or two...or three...or seven are you serious?

Sometimes life is so bittersweet...sometimes it comes right up and slaps you in the face! I was over at Two Peas looking for some cute CTMH ideas and I have not been there in forever. I saw some of my old projects and my old cards were so funny. My old scrapbook pages...also funny for the most part. More on that in a moment. After looking around for a while I ended up at this garden girls profile which made me go to her web site and see this really cool page in which she is talking about things she said she would do and then give us an update on if she did them or not.

Well wouldn't you know it but the on line class I am taking also referenced this page! You could have hit me with a big ole BRICK! Seriously? I had to pick up my mouth off the floor. It was one of those ahah moments like hello is someone trying to tell me something.

Here is why I was getting hit with the brick. I did this page way way way back in 2002 it was on September 11 and I was at Wrigley Field with my mom and my brother. This photo made me realize just how jumbo I had become. I knew I had to do something about it.

I made a plan I started a journal, I started a scrapbook all about me and my journey.

I wrote a wonderful poemish letter to myself about where I want to be in a year.

Then I took some horrible photo's of myself.

Honest photo's

Then I made yet another scrapbook page all about where I will be in a year.

This was 7 years ago. Guess what? I weigh 8 pounds more now than I did then!

What the heck! Seriously I ask myself what the heck is wrong with me. I had lost about 40 pounds but then I gained it back over the last few years while the hub has been working 3rd shift. Nothing to do at night but eat...a lot. I even called my old friends Ben and Jerry.

Here is the journaling/poem of sorts

Where will I be in a year?
That is all it wll take. A single year. Why didn't I do it before? A Year...

In one year I could be at my goal or really close to it, I could be healthier, thinner, prettier...a year. That is it.

What is my problem? do YOU remember what you ate yesterday? I don't unless I really really think about it. So tell me were the chips and dip worth it? Would a salad have worked just as well? What about last week? So the chips and dip were yummy and can remember why you wanted them but I certainly don't remember what I ate a week ago...a month ago...a year ago.

What were you doing a year ago? I was wishing for the umpteeth thousanth time that I was thin...a year. That isn't a lot of time.

A YEAR I tell ya!

Ok...so what brought on this insight? I was looking at pictures of me and all my friends (yes you) and wow...I was really thin...as few times I had to remember to close my mouth...I had forgotten I had ever looked like that.

So the time is now...a year...that is it...a year...

Car to join me?

Where will you be in a year?

So wow that was seven years ago. The funny thing is I am not even a real fan of chips and dip. LOL Anyway seriously. I need to follow through on some things. I have accomplished quite a few things on my must do in my life list

1. Have another baby
2. Get married
3.  Buy a home
4. Lose weight - ugh this is always the one!
5. Travel to Venice

I think it is time to get serious...and give myself that year!

It's coming...will you be ready?

It only happens a few times a year:

Well it is official, yesterday just wore me out! It wore me down so much I was in bed by 10pm, which is unheard of for me. It isn't as if I didn't know if was comming. I got a notice a few weeks ago and I very dutiful made my appointments...1...2...3...4...5. Yep five of them and then I began the worry and the anxiety. 15 minutes each, what why so long that seems like forever.

I knew it was comming but even still I tried to push it to the back of my mind. Everytime it would come up I would just change the subject in my mind and move on. Time is not always kind though and both the good things as well as the bad come upon us oh so quickly. Then suddenly it was here;

Tick...tock...tick...tock...

yesterday was just another ordinary day and in the morning I had forgotten what day it was and then suddenly I realized! D'oh...now the feeling of dread is back and in full swing. A nice birthday treat at work yesterday make things all better for a short time. Home made big ole chocolate fudge brownies...yum.

Oh ok back to the task at hand. I finished up work at my desk thinking this day went entirely to fast. I went home and made dinner for the family then I grabbed my keys and said my good-byes. Dread filling me up every mile that I get closer and closer to the big brick building. Dread as I enter though the big doors and walk down the familiar halls that I once walked day in and day out for four years. Step by anxious step. What will be said, what will I say back...the silence in the halls...looking at old photographs that still line the walls.

Then I am there and it starts:

Me: Hi, I am Savannah's mom.

Her: Oh so nice to meet you.

Me: You too.

Her: Savannah is such a nice girl. Such a pleasure to have in class. She participates and seems very smart. We are reading "To Kill a Mockingbird"

Me: Yes she has been reading

Her: She woudl be doing better in class if she turned in her homework. She is missing quite a few assignments. If she would turn in her homework her test scores would be better...
Me: Yes I saw that, I will make sure she is getting that done.

So the story continues and the same thing in each class. Ahh...big sigh of releif. It wasnt' so bad not like that one time way back when. I leave to go back home happy that all of her teachers can see what I see in her...lots of potential.

As I walk in the door I hear giggling from my two youngest girls.

Her: How did it go?

Me: Good, good, your teachers are all very nice. We need to work on that homework. It really must be turned in every day. Other than that the conferences went well.

Her: Ok...smiling as if she didn't know she wans't turning it in and then more questions.

Me: Telling her of all the details...with love in my heart and a smile on my lips.

Feeling good that it is all over...until next time.

Pulling a Letterman

I love to make lists even thought I don't always end up using them. I want to do a few list pages for my girls and maybe one about books and movies. Anyway I thought I would do up a little listy listy for all to see. I have been pondering this list for a while now...what kind of list did I want? Did I want to talk about my favorite books? Why I love being a consultant got CTMH? Where I want to go? Where I have been? My favorite _____.

I thought I would go with Why I love Scrapbooking! Now everyone will know why I cannot get enough.

Friends - this is a hobby that gets you instant friends! I cannot even begin to tell you how many ladies I have met that have turned into real lifelong friends because I scrapbook.

Paper - Oh man there is paper for everything. Pretty pretty patterns, pretty pretty colors, pretty pretty  paper! You think you have the perfect color but guess what...you don't! Gotta get more for sure...pretty pretty paper!

Tools - You need the tools to cut the paper or shape the paper. These tools are so awesome! If I were a man I would probably grunt like Tim Taylor when he walks into a sears store. My husband has music equipment in the man cave and tools in the garage and I have a cricut and a big shot and punches....ohh....

A little Bling - Bling - Can a girl ever have to many embelishments? Really? I mean ribbon and shinny stuff and brads oh my...

Memories - this is a huge reason why I scrapbook. I love to record the memories of my loved ones lives! Oh those kids grow up so fast. The books also help when those said kids turn into teenagers! Then you ahve to look at them to remember how cute they once were and know that theyw ill turn back into cute beings on a day, a wee, an hour...you just never know what your going to get from one day to the next when you live with teens.

Some ME time! - Going of of what I was saying up above...I really love my family but sometimes I just want to admire them and not really talk to them. Haha!!

History - I dabble here and there in geneology and wow would I be so thrilled to run across a scrapbook of yesteryear. It is fun to record stories or moments knowing that my grandchild or great grandchild will stumble across the books one day and discover a little bit more about us.

FUN - This hobby is pure fun! Lots of laughing, giggles and snorts goes on at crops.

Creativity! - When I was little I saw these beautiful drawings my mom did and I always used to ask her why she never did drawings any more and she just kind of said she stopped after she had kids cause she got busy and I was horrified! I would tell her she should continue and how could it be when you love to draw how do you just stop. Can you tell I am a drawer too...well used to be! The same thing happened to me. It isn't as easy to find the time or the subject or the idea when you are chasing girls around or taking them here and there and everywhere. Scrapbooking takes care of my creative need!

Cards! - Oohhhh...just like one thing leads to another scrapbooking leads to cardmaking and that is fun stuff! Instant gradification I tell you. Instant! Sometimes a page can take what seems like forever but a card well you can belt that baby out in minutes!

It's not always black and white

So I have been going through some old photos when I cam across this one. Oh that shirt...it was my favorite I just loved it so much and felt so good when I wore it. Would you just laugh so hard if I told you that it had matching pants? Well it did!!! I wore them all the time too until one fateful day I tore them on a gangly teen boys rusty old car. We were at the park and he pulled up super super close and I was walking between the cars and a peice of rust just reached right out and tore my pants. You guessed it I stilll wore them for a while until that hole kept getting bigger and bigger.

Anyway...we are not here to talk about the pants or that adorable shirt .

Back to the page at hand.and the photo from the mid 80's. I ran across it and I wished there were more but alas there was not more so I just scrapbooked this one page becasue well even though this is just one little ole photo it tells a story. A story of a time a long ago, yet it seems like just yesterday.

I am trying to study in this photo but I seem very very distraced. I am defiinatly more interested in that diet coke that in the books. I had actually forgotten that I used to drink diet coke way back then. Now I only drink diet pepsi. There is not a whole lot of journaling right here and I sort of took over this hole section and made a giant title. I broke it up with several flower rub ons. I love the way it turned out as it looks like doodles on the cover of my notebook. I also added some bling to each one of the flower centers.

Since the photo was so small 3 1/2 x 5 I needed something to make it pop! I decided to use the Top Notch die to cut out my picture. I mounted it on white and sponged the edges wiht blacm. I added a strip of ribbon to the bottom of the white block and tucked in some hidden journaing. That is for the real story and maybe one day I will tell you more about this day but for now you will just get the simplfied version.

You can also see the journaling box. It tells a ltitle story about doing homewor and how hard it to catch up/ This paper as well as the ribbon  are from the May 2008 personal scapper kit. 

A full day...

So I signed up for a on-line class! I really enjoy blogging but I would love to have more of a following per say and have people coming to visit because they just cannot wait to see what I am up to next and to really love my most current project and to be able to utilize my ideas to help come up with their ideas. It is like that commercia from teh 70's and they'll tell their friends, and their friends' and their friends....and on and on it goes.

If you are new to these parts  welcome! I will try my hardest to entertain you, give you cute projects, and spell things correctly. If you have been around for a while you are probalby having a little chuckle right now.

My first assignment over at Blogging for Scrapbookers is to do up a page about where I world on my blog and what my intentions are. I sort of feel like I am on a first date. LOL I have a tendency to create and create and crate and then i look around and it is like a tornado came through. Tonight was no different. Here is my desk where I scrapbook. Sometimes I leave the computer on a table to my eft and other times, like tonight I move it on over so it is easier to type.

I am a little embarassed about the mess since I didn't even scrapbook today. Honestly I am just getting home from this morning and well it is after midnight here sooo....sometimes life just takes you places and you ahve to roll with the punches. That is what I am doing. I can't wait for you to see my new and improved blog in the very new future and I have some projects to share too! I was at a team meeting tonihgt AND I got a whole bunch of cute ideas from the blog hop we had yesterday.